WoW vs. WAR: My Opinion

/sigh

Ok, so I've been in the Open Beta for Warhammer Online (*dodges bullets from the hardcore WoW fans* Wait! Wait! Here me out! With Wrath coming out, well Soon, and with 3.0.2 on the horizon of the PTRs, I'm kind of bored waiting on WoW. I desperately want into the Wrath Beta, but my opt in fortune seems very crappy. So, I tried WAR to pass some time.

WAR's fun. It is. The PvP actually is fun. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy whooping butt in AV as much as the next guy, but lets face it, PvP can be downright maddening in WoW. PvP is fairly balanced at the moment in WAR, but give it 2 years and I bet it'll be way different.

Sure, some of the classes are unique. And by some I mean White Lion. White Lion actually feels unique. It's almost like playing a melee-dps focused Hunter, and you have no ranged weapons. That's about the gist of a White Lion. Though, I find they're tricky. There's alot of manuevering you'll have to do to use this class to it's fullest extent.

My number one favorite thing about WAR, hands down, is Public Quests. Public Quests are the most fun and addictive past time I've ever experienced in an online game. You don't even have group up for them. See a random dude doing the quest? You can join him! Simple. As. That.

Now, to get onto my feelings on this game. Hold onto your hardhats. Now please remember, this is just my opinion. If you don't agree, fine. I'm not going to bash anyone, so please, don't bash me.

WAR feels like a game I've been playing for the past 4 years. While many things are different (Tome of Knowledge, Public Quests) are different than World of Warcraft, WAR feels alot like WoW's distant cousin. The action bars are near identical. The different "masteries" feel alot like the "talent trees". Sorceress feels like a slow but powerful Mage. Witch Elf feels like a slower less hectic Rogue.

That being said, I'm tired of hearing people say "it's nothing like WoW!" Ok, it isn't WoW, but it's certainly not "Nothing like WoW". It's alot like WoW. But is that necessarily a bad thing? Not always. To me, it isn't. I still like Sorceress and White Lion, even if the UI looks almost identical to WoW's. That doesn't bother me.

What does bother me, is this game is NOT ready for release. This game has bugs, glitches, and what-have-you's everywhere. White Lions' War Lions don't path too well. Pets will randomly disappear for no reason along with the action bar. Mobs will sometimes run into a tree and disappear. Upgrades are constantly being poured in the past two days. I'm glad the game has a fast response team for what needs to be done, but this game just isn't ready to be out next Thursday. It needs to be in Beta some more. Open beta allowed for alot of testing to be done and accomplished, and I think WAR needs that some more.

But that's just my opinion.